Today is the day – the day that the man I love marries someone else. I don’t deserve pity or sympathy. I’ve made my bed. I left Mason and ripped his heart to pieces as I ran away. The guilt and sorrow consume me, threatening to choke me everyday.
But today is a new beginning. Today is the day I will wake up with a renewed resolve and determination to do better … to be better … to be worthy. My name is Sara Preston, and this is my story about what happens after.
Hope Over Fear can be read as a stand alone novel.
"The fact is, Sara, I don’t think I can let you walk away.”
He reaches around and wraps my hair around his fist, then gently pulls, exposing my neck. My breath is coming in short bursts, and I fight with my body to appear calm and in control. His nose trails delicately across my cheek, down my neck, and over my collarbone. He gently nips at the base of my neck, and my body shudders involuntarily. He kisses hungrily up the side of my neck until he reaches my ear.
“Just give me a chance. I promise you won’t regret it, beautiful girl,” he whispers. He shifts back just far enough to look into my eyes. And I’m lost. Lost in the hunger and desire I see reflecting back at me.
Lowering his head toward me, he sucks my bottom lip, and I grasp his forearms tightly for balance. There’s nothing tentative about his approach. He’s self-assured, knows what he wants, and takes it. I fucking love that. He coaxes my lips open with his tongue and devours me. As our tongues slide hungrily against each other, he pulls me even closer to him and pushes his way between my legs. Adam kisses like he’s starving, and I’m all too happy to provide.
He ends the kiss way too soon for my liking. We stay intertwined and breathless for a few moments, and I love that I hold power over him like he does over me. He looks up at me with a lazy smirk, and it feels like the wind has been knocked out of me. He’s stunning, and I can’t believe he’s interested in someone like me.
Sara Preston lived in the shadow of one of the most difficult decisions that she had to make, break her boyfriend, who was also her best friends heart, because she knew that he deserved a love that she wasn't able to give him. In the only manner that seemed to work to make Mason walk away, Sara did the unthinkable, she let him and the rest of her small town believe that she was a heartless woman, who didn't care about anyone's feelings. Taking the looks and talking that ensued after their split Sarah withdrew into herself, wracked with the guilt of what she had done to someone who she truly cared about with all of her heart. It was only when asking for forgiveness that she didn't truly believe she deserved, did she begin to find peace within herself and began moving on with her life as Mason had already done himself.
J.A. DeRouen tells a tale of past heartbreaks that one can't let go of but need to in order to move forward and what it really mean to find a love that only makes you wanting more instead of dreading what comes next in her novel Hope Over Fear. I turned each page of the story with bated breath hoping that the ending that I wanted would match the words on the page, and I will tell you that I was far from disappointed! Although it wasn't gift wrapped with a bow, the HEA that I yearned for was on it's way to becoming a reality for Adam and Sara and that is all that I can ask for as a reader. I would rate this book 4 stars and encourage everyone to read it, and I personally cannot wait to read the next story from this tight-knit group of friends that truly were a family!
"Don't you see beautiful girl, I'm knocking."
Adam and Sara meet at the clinic where they are volunteering, Sara because of her expertise in adoption procedures and Adam to try and give back after a tragedy from his past. Although their first meeting was anything but friendly, they quickly establish a banter and flirting that has the reader giving a little sigh when they talk. Although Adam has a tremendous responsibility that needs to be his top priority (and no ladies I will NOT reveal what that is you have to read to find out) he makes time whenever he can to see the first girl that he stolen is heart. Although Adam reveals the hurtful things from his past to Sara, she holds back from telling him the truth about what really happened between her and Mason because her insecurities get the best of her. And that decision is one that causes her a lot of heartache in the last half of the book.
"This is what I have been waiting for. He is what I've been waiting for."
"This is what I have been waiting for. She is what I've been waiting for."
J.A. Derouen resides in South Louisiana where she lives with her husband, son (aptly nicknamed "The Professor"), and her furry friend, Scout. She has earned bachelor’s degrees in psychology and nursing. When she's not writing or inhaling romance novels by the stack, she works as a women's health nurse. She’s been an avid reader and daydreamer since childhood, and she's never stopped turning the page to get to the next happily ever after.
